I wrote this last year as a gift for Dawn Felagund. Obviously the parallels are not precise, but it did seem to me that Feanor was being accused of hubris for daring to create "like the gods." More power to him, I say.

I've got only too few such sly references in my work. The other one that stands out is "King Elessar's Peace," where the invention of movable type and the printing press is hailed. (You can find that one at HASA as part of "Many Guises and Many Names.")

I like to think that an Age of Enlightenment followed the Ring War, and King Elessar established schools of learning and encouraged the arts and sciences.

But of course you speak only too true. With the Enlightenment came---the Inquisition!

Maybe I'll write a tale about a Middle-earth Galileo. hmmmm....